The OFFICIAL 2018 LA Dodgers Thread - Sponsored by The Mueller Investigation Co.

You know the drill, if you're going to talk about your own team, start another thread, which again will be unlikely, unless you're a Cubs or Astros fan, and then you'll just get called out for bandwagon'ing.

The Blue were one game away from burning down the city, I think we will be deep in the playoffs again this year, regardless of the NL West becoming suddenly decent from the past year, except for the vaGiants who managed to mathematically eliminate themselves from playoff contention 2 games after the All Star game, after their ace decided to hurt his shoulder dirt biking. (A la, Jeff Kent.)

We won't be seeing a couple of faces in the dugout, thank god, and a lot of new faces, including personnel from our farm system who hope to make the cut and break into the major league roster; I'm looking at you, Walker Buehler. The saberdorks in the front office retained a lot of random personnel from various clubs and I'm curious who will stand out during Spring Training.

Will Bellinger have a sophomore slump? Will Pederson continue his steady hitting that encapsulated his Post Season? Will Kershaw's back go out again? Will Justin Turner ever shave his beard? Will Puig impregnate another debutante? Will Urias ever see the mound again? Will Kike ever go back to his natural hair color? Will Andrew Toles go back to stocking frozen foods?

Esteban Loaiza pitched for 14 years in the major leagues. Hes now facing way more time than that in the California Penal League.

Multiple news outlets are reporting that Loaiza was arrested in San Diego County on Friday for transporting roughly 44 pounds of heroin and cocaine. His arrest report is reproduced below, courtesy of Jeff Passan of Yahoo.

Loaiza is due to be arraigned on Wednesday. Bail has been set at $200,000. At least one news outlet  Univision  questions whether the former big leaguer can make that bail. Loaiza, Univision notes, was one married to the late singer Jenni Rivera, but she filed for divorce from him in the months before her death in a plane crash, in part due to allegations of financial impropriety on his part. Whatever the case, Loaiza is in deep trouble.

Loaiza pitched for eight different teams in his career, spending four years with the Pirates and three years each with the White Sox, Rangers and Blue Jays. He spent two years in L.A. and Oakland  where he got a DUI in 20o6  and a year each with the Yankees and Nationals. His best season came in 2003 when he went 21-9 with a 2.90 ERA for the White Sox, finishing second in the Cy Young balloting. For his career he was 126-114 with a 4.65 ERA in 377 games, starting 333 of them.

Doubtful, as long as we have those same slick balls from last year, which meant nobody could throw a slider, regardless of what your name was.

That, or if Darvish continues to tip his pitches, which I believe was one of the best Urban Legends from last year, ranked right up near "La Llorona" and "if you find encounter someone driving the same direction at night with their head lights off, not to flash them because it's a gang initiation and you'll get shot."

The "tipping pitches" deal was Dodger fans "Shock and Denial" phase of dealing with death. And I can't believe so many embraced it, instead of moving on to Stage 2, "Pain and Guilt."